Team Fortress 2 "Mann vs. Machine" survival co-op starts tomorrow (8/15)

[greenhawk]

have you been trying to join the server manually?

I gave up and just updated my old virtual PC I had a TF2 server on from back when acheivements where released for each class. Quite a large update needed. Lucky, a 6 is about as much as my 1Mb/s upload can handel so this game mode works for me. I just have to set a password so only friends can join. Need a min 3 to join though else the game will not start the waves.

Going to have to find a way of updating the hardness though. It appears hit or miss currently and some servers appear to be hard and some are just too easy.

 

[MetalMat]

weds night work for you guys?

Might be out of town with a crappy internet connection, don't know yet. But yeah if I am home

 

[MetalMat]

I've been able to play quit a bit. I've beaten Normal Mode several times, but have only gotten 5 out of 6 levels on Advanced Mode. A lot of it has to do with teammates and if they're screwing around or not.

Seems that MvM has really marginalized the Sniper and the Spy. They just can't do much.

The Spy is very useful for resetting bombs, along with various other tasks. Someone that is good at the class can really help a team. One game I played we had a spy that was easily the MVP of the group and we got up to 6/6 with little trouble. Then he suddenly disconnected and we hit a wall.

The sniper though..... probably the most useless class in MvM imo. I guess a really good sniper would be great at picking off the giants but thats about the extent. I love it when teams have 2 snipers and they both become stubborn and wont change class. Might as well find a new game.

I find teams get caught it the trap of thinking they need 2 or more engineers, I have never had much success on those teams.

I also find that when I am an engineer, in specific the coaltown map, it is better to build the dispenser where teammates can use it and build the sentry near an ammo drop. If you build your sentry in a forward location it will get taken out, you cant repair it fast enough even with a dispenser when the hard hitting waves come.

 

[Childs]

Is there a way to change the zoom for the sniper to a hold, instead of a toggle? It throws off my rhythm.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

I quite like this, played a whole bunch but a couple of things have made the gameplay experience a lot worse than it has to be.

Constant waiting for everything, there's always 1 idiot who never presses F4 to ready so we stand around for ages. General lack of coordination between random players is frustrating, too many games where people think it's smart to take 3 engineers or 2 snipers, it's just aggrovating.

Even had a few games where 3-4 of us were on mics chatting and forming strats but just 1-2 idiots spoil it for the rest of us.

Also the server queue thing is completely broken, I have no option other than to join games in progress via the server browser.

 

[darkewaffle]

I like it, but so far sentry engis feel too required. Other classes simply can't clear trash at the rate a sentry can especially if the enemies get spread out, but that could be a player problem still. I do think as an engi you're pretty much obligated to be sentry based, which is unfortunate since I feel like a Widowmaker build could be really fun.

 

[Scouzer]

The Spy is very useful for resetting bombs, along with various other tasks. Someone that is good at the class can really help a team. One game I played we had a spy that was easily the MVP of the group and we got up to 6/6 with little trouble. Then he suddenly disconnected and we hit a wall.

The sniper though..... probably the most useless class in MvM imo. I guess a really good sniper would be great at picking off the giants but thats about the extent. I love it when teams have 2 snipers and they both become stubborn and wont change class. Might as well find a new game.

I find teams get caught it the trap of thinking they need 2 or more engineers, I have never had much success on those teams.

I also find that when I am an engineer, in specific the coaltown map, it is better to build the dispenser where teammates can use it and build the sentry near an ammo drop. If you build your sentry in a forward location it will get taken out, you cant repair it fast enough even with a dispenser when the hard hitting waves come.

The key for an engineer to repair their sentry fast enough for later waves is to upgrade the wrench attack speed. With +40% attack speed basically nothing short of a sentry buster can kill your sentry.

 

[MetalMat]

The key for an engineer to repair their sentry fast enough for later waves is to upgrade the wrench attack speed. With +40% attack speed basically nothing short of a sentry buster can kill your sentry.

Ahhhhh, I never thought of that. SO would you recommend upgrading that before sentry health?

 

[Bill Brasky]

Ahhhhh, I never thought of that. SO would you recommend upgrading that before sentry health?

Building health affects all engie buildings, not just the sentury. Usually building health is the first upgrade I buy in the first round with exactly $400. After that, sentury firing speed, dispenser range, then wrench firing speed. After every thing has a lvl 1 upgrade, I max out sentury firing speed.

 

[z1ggy]

SO I tried to play this last night...You have to purchase a ticket thing.. just to play? Am I confused or missing something here?

 

[JTsyo]

SO I tried to play this last night...You have to purchase a ticket thing.. just to play? Am I confused or missing something here?

Pick the option on the right side, forget what it says exactly but something like training or practice. Better option is to go to the server browser and put in MvM in the tag filter.

 

[darkewaffle]

The ticket is just for 'official' servers which run "Mann Up" mode iirc; which rewards you with items upon completion but also I think is supposed to be more difficult. I think the real point of the ticket is the fact that the queue time is much lower when using one.

 

[Red Storm]

The ticket is just for 'official' servers which run "Mann Up" mode iirc; which rewards you with items upon completion but also I think is supposed to be more difficult. I think the real point of the ticket is the fact that the queue time is much lower when using one.

Yeah, it's a real dick move by Valve, straight outta EA's playbook.

My brother and I tried playing last night. 97 minute wait time? No thanks. I still haven't been able to play.

 

[0roo0roo]

must be unlucky timing, i've never had to wait more than 10 minutes, even on free mode.

estimates are lousy, it goes 30, jumps to 20, back to 30, then down to 2...lol

you do wait sometimes even for a mann up server.

what is broken is the fact that if you are dropped or crash out of a server, you cannot get back in again, invites or not.

 

[darkewaffle]

I haven't actually done a free queue yet, that's just what I've heard, played Mann Up mode three times I think (you only 'lose' the ticket when you complete the final wave, so two tickets used) and it's been 15-20 minutes each time.

 

[0roo0roo]

Building health affects all engie buildings, not just the sentury. Usually building health is the first upgrade I buy in the first round with exactly $400. After that, sentury firing speed, dispenser range, then wrench firing speed. After every thing has a lvl 1 upgrade, I max out sentury firing speed.

canteen kritz double fire rate for the sentry, and of course wrangler increases bombardment range to as far as you can see...

 

[0roo0roo]

I like it, but so far sentry engis feel too required. Other classes simply can't clear trash at the rate a sentry can especially if the enemies get spread out, but that could be a player problem still. I do think as an engi you're pretty much obligated to be sentry based, which is unfortunate since I feel like a Widowmaker build could be really fun.

with the amount of robots on advanced mode/mann up mode the widow maker is only good in theory, the engie has too little survivability to make it worth it, wrangling your sentry makes it 400~ points harder to kill with the shield bubble. the scout throwing milk to slow enemies 35% and return heals to all on damage is way better if you want to shotgun people, esp since when he runs through the dead bodies to gather money it over heals him.

I quite like this, played a whole bunch but a couple of things have made the gameplay experience a lot worse than it has to be.

Constant waiting for everything, there's always 1 idiot who never presses F4 to ready so we stand around for ages. General lack of coordination between random players is frustrating, too many games where people think it's smart to take 3 engineers or 2 snipers, it's just aggrovating.

Even had a few games where 3-4 of us were on mics chatting and forming strats but just 1-2 idiots spoil it for the rest of us.

Also the server queue thing is completely broken, I have no option other than to join games in progress via the server browser.

i've learned to hit f4 on the start of the round on pub servers. it starts the countdown right away.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

it probably only takes less time because there's less people trying to get in on a game. just do use the server browser and look for games with < 4 players on it. it'll still might take some time to find a reliable game depending on how many people are trying to play. Also a lot of the servers are going to be listen servers so your game might end up disappearing at some point.

 

[Homerboy]

I've played a handful of times. Each time its been less than 2 mins wait time (just enough time to go grab a snack or trip to the bathroom). I have no complaints about this new game-mode. If anything it's added some SERIOUS life into a game that I was starting to grow bored of (and I resented that I was growing bored of it)

Do I need a ticket each time to play on the man-up servers? Or is that a one-time purchase thing?

 

[Kabob]

My brother and I tried playing last night. 97 minute wait time? No thanks. I still haven't been able to play.

If you don't want to play Mann Up mode (with a ticket) just go to server browser and look for servers with a map name starting with "MVM," there's thousands and it takes less than a minute to find one with room.

I've played a handful of times. Each time its been less than 2 mins wait time (just enough time to go grab a snack or trip to the bathroom). I have no complaints about this new game-mode. If anything it's added some SERIOUS life into a game that I was starting to grow bored of (and I resented that I was growing bored of it)

Do I need a ticket each time to play on the man-up servers? Or is that a one-time purchase thing?

Same here, hopped onto servers several times last night and had almost no wait at all. That said, getting through Mann Up mode is ridiculous. Half the time someone leaves and the other half of the time people don't want to work together.

 

[0roo0roo]

I've played a handful of times. Each time its been less than 2 mins wait time (just enough time to go grab a snack or trip to the bathroom). I have no complaints about this new game-mode. If anything it's added some SERIOUS life into a game that I was starting to grow bored of (and I resented that I was growing bored of it)

Do I need a ticket each time to play on the man-up servers? Or is that a one-time purchase thing?

mann up is 6 maps/missions, each time you join a game it uses a ticket if you beat the final wave, then you get goodies, when you do all 6 of the required maps then you get a strange bot weapon. you only lose tickets on completion of a mission.

if you don't care about loot just play the same maps in bootcamp on advanced.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

The tickets are just for a sort of "premium" mode where at the end of a successful win you're guranteed to unlock some special weapons/gadgets/hats.

You don't have to pay for that, to my knowledge it doesn't effect queue time, which for me is not normally more than about 5 minutes anyway. You can open up the game browser and just search for servers with the filter set to have the map name "mvm_" and it will find only the MvM servers, join one with less than 6 players and you'll get straight in, no need to wait.

 

[Sacraster]

Might be out of town with a crappy internet connection, don't know yet. But yeah if I am home

ok, i should be on tonight. sn is sacraster

 

[Red Storm]

If you don't want to play Mann Up mode (with a ticket) just go to server browser and look for servers with a map name starting with "MVM," there's thousands and it takes less than a minute to find one with room.

Except there's two of us wanting to get in, and we want to play the way it was meant to, from beginning to end, not half way through.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Except there's two of us wanting to get in, and we want to play the way it was meant to, from beginning to end, not half way through.

Just join one with 4 players then, and either vote to restart or finish up the game and wait for the map to cycle over, games are pretty fast especially on easy, probably just as long as waiting for a server to pop in the queue, except you wont be bored waiting.